The Better Angels of Our Nature Summary

Why is violence decreasing despite humanity's innate tendencies? Our better angels might hold the answer.

1. Violence Comes Naturally to Humans

Violence is ingrained in human behavior as a tool for survival and resource competition, evolving over millennia of biological development. Our ancestors often resorted to aggression to secure food, mates, or territory, giving violent individuals an evolutionary advantage in tough environments. Even today, manifestations of this biological drive can be seen in small children displaying aggressive tendencies like biting or hitting.

However, this instinct risks more than it rewards. Hurting others, especially family members, could jeopardize shared genetic survival. Moreover, violent confrontations are laden with potential harm to the aggressor, creating situations where gaining is overshadowed by long-term physical and social disadvantages.

Humans learned to control these instincts partly because survival often required cooperation. Societies found ways to channel this violent potential selectively, encouraging collaboration to build more functional communities while discouraging harmful aggression through laws and norms.

Examples

• Toddlers exhibit high levels of aggression like hitting and biting, reflecting raw instincts.
• Tribes often fought over limited resources, such as land for hunting or fresh water.
• Studies on brain stimulation reveal aggression is tied to neurological "rage circuits."

2. Dominance and Hierarchies

Social hierarchies formed as a way to reduce unnecessary conflicts while establishing access to resources. These hierarchies, often based on physical strength or social influence, arose among many species and humans. By defining "winners" and "losers" in advance, violence could be curbed because the threat of injury from fights was minimized.

In males, dominance often linked directly to reproductive success. Prehistoric male humans who could climb social ranks gained better access to mates and resources, pushing them to use aggression when necessary. Yet this instinct transformed over time. Women began valuing traits like loyalty and provision over sheer dominance, leading to more cooperative family units.

This shift promoted the importance of staying alive for all involved. Survival, not domination, became the focus as humans began to nurture kin and build strong familial systems—an approach aligned with modern relationships, where emotional bonds matter more than brute power.

Examples

• Male lions fight for dominance within a pride, securing mating opportunities.
• In human tribes, leaders often emerged not just with violence but by showing competence.
• Hunter-gatherer females famously prioritized providers over aggressive alphas for mates.

3. Revenge: A Powerful and Dangerous Impulse

The human desire for revenge is universal, powerful, and long-lasting. It goes beyond impulsive retaliation, as people often nurture grudges over years. Revenge has evolutionary roots, acting as a deterrent to potential attackers who fear the consequences of crossing someone.

Despite its evolutionary basis, revenge’s emotional appeal often outweighs its practical benefits. Studies show people experience satisfaction from revenge, as it activates pleasure centers in the brain. However, it rarely provides material rewards but instead fuels cycles of violence, spreading harm further.

The moral idea of "an eye for an eye" reflects humanity’s deeply ingrained sense of reciprocity. While this sense of justice helps enforce cooperation in society, it can turn destructive when revenge outweighs rationality or peaceful alternatives.

Examples

• Many tribal cultures practice formal blood feuds to settle disputes.
• 20 percent of global homicides are motivated by revenge.
• Experiments with rats show dopamine spikes when they “take revenge” against others.

4. Empathy: The Foundation of Altruism

Empathy evolved as humans needed to care for their offspring and build cooperative societies. It allows people to deeply connect with others’ emotions, fostering altruistic behavior that improves familial bonds and group survival. Early humans likely developed empathy to ensure that parents would protect their helpless infants.

Empathy extends beyond kin, enabling trading relationships and alliances with outsiders. With time, humans learned to direct empathy not just toward people we share blood with but those we can relate to through common experiences or shared ideas. However, empathy, while powerful, has limits, as people naturally empathize more with groups they perceive as similar to themselves, excluding others.

The ability to expand empathy through education, shared understanding, and cultural exchanges has had a significant impact on reducing violence. By seeing conflicts through more compassionate eyes, humans break barriers between "us versus them."

Examples

• Baby-faced prisoners often receive more lenient sentences due to empathy-driven biases.
• Cross-cultural programs improve relationships between historically hostile ethnic groups.
• Fictional literature helps readers empathize by imagining different ways of life.

5. Moral Understanding: Violence's Double-Edged Sword

Morality is a complex driver. While it has motivated acts of incredible compassion, it has also fueled horrific violence. By defining what is "good" or "right," societies sometimes exclude those perceived as threats or wrongdoers, rationalizing violence against them. From witch-burning to wars driven by ideology, moral reasoning has often been weaponized.

Despite this, moral progress increasingly discourages violence. Themes like equal reciprocity, fairness, and communal sharing prioritize peaceful coexistence over dominance. Global trade has encouraged cooperation by tying individual success to shared prosperity, reducing incentives for war.

Advances in civil rights and justice systems reflect morality’s gradual tilt toward protecting individuals from harm. As morality adapts to new realities, it becomes an ever-stronger force pushing for peace.

Examples

• Witch-burning in 17th-century Europe faded as moral ideas evolved.
• Racist ideologies were dismantled by 20th-century civil rights activists’ moral appeals.
• Economic interdependence discourages conflict between countries with shared trade ties.

6. Reason as a Force for Peace

Reason helps people assess conflicts logically and avoid the emotional triggers that lead to violence. It allows for more impersonal, objective responses to disputes, focusing on shared, long-term solutions. Reason's role in resolving violence depends on understanding that all participants are vulnerable to harm, encouraging compromise for mutual survival.

Historical examples like the Cuban Missile Crisis showcase reason-driven strategies to avoid devastating conflicts. Leaders reframed problems to foster collaboration and break cycles of confrontation. Reason also debunks harmful superstitions, like witch trials or pseudoscientific justifications for exterminating groups.

Importantly, intelligence levels worldwide are rising, led by educational access and critical thinking training. As reasoning powers increase, societies are more likely to navigate disputes peacefully rather than resorting to destructive outcomes.

Examples

• The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis ended peacefully through calculated diplomacy.
• IQ scores have risen by 3 points per decade due to better education.
• Reason dismantled myths about “blood libel” in Jewish communities, reducing hatred.

7. The Decline of Nomadic Violence

State societies emerged to monopolize violence and create order. Prior to agricultural civilizations, nomadic tribes engaged in violent practices to defend resources or extract revenge. However, as governments formed, they took control over acts of aggression, punishing individuals who tried to take justice into their own hands.

States wanted peace not out of benevolence but because internal conflicts reduced productivity. By curbing personal violence, these systems allowed communities to build more stable environments, encouraging trade and cooperation. Eventually, governments began reducing their own acts of violence, pacifying populations further.

This centralization of power created not just safety but a platform for future reforms, laying the groundwork for less brutal ways of resolving disputes across societies.

Examples

• Around 15 percent of deaths occurred through violence in hunter-gatherer tribes.
• The death toll from tribal conflicts dwarfs the current rates of urban violence.
• Modern courts replaced tribal feuds, redirecting revenge into measured legal systems.

8. Rights Revolutions and Marginalized Groups

The Rights Revolutions of the 20th century brought profound changes by extending protections to once-abused groups. Movements advocating racial equality, women’s independence, and LGBTQ acceptance shifted societies’ attitudes about who deserved fair treatment under the law.

These revolutions replaced violence, like lynchings or state-backed discrimination, with empathy and cooperation. They demonstrate how public opinion and cultural shifts can reduce conflict by amplifying justice rather than suppressing dissent.

Although these changes are still unfolding, they offer practical blueprints for addressing lingering violence in marginalized communities worldwide, broadening humanity’s moral circle further.

Examples

• Gender-based violence continues to fall as women gain educational access and rights.
• Hate crimes in Western countries have dropped following anti-discrimination laws.
• LGBTQ protections in over 120 countries reduced punitive violence against this group.

9. The Economic Motivator for Peace

Global trade has helped reduce violence. As nations become more economically interdependent, they have fewer incentives to engage in conflicts that damage mutual prosperity. People benefit more from maintaining long-lasting trade partnerships than risking destruction through war.

Economic ties between nations discourage escalation, as seen in the decline of large-scale wars between industrialized countries. Trade networks increasingly tie diverse communities together, boosting collaboration over mistrust and ultimately reinforcing peace.

Moreover, technological improvements and shared cultural exchanges through trade help build empathy and understanding, creating societies more resistant to violent solutions.

Examples

• Post-World War trade agreements helped maintain peace between previously warring nations.
• Economic unions in Europe reduced incentives for territorial warfare between member states.
• Supply chain interdependence discourages disruption through acts of hostility.

Takeaways

1. Build empathy by actively trying to understand others’ experiences and views; this practice diminishes anger and the desire for revenge.
2. Strengthen self-control through healthy habits like exercise, proper nutrition, and practicing small acts of discipline, as willpower guards against impulsive violence.
3. Support policies that promote education, equality, and democratic reforms globally to foster long-term reductions in violence.